Chinese Astrology and Chinese Calendar - Ten Heavenly Stems

There are 10 Stems and 12 Branches in
Chinese astrology calendar. The Stem and the Branch are used together. The Stem
is used in front of (on top of) the Branch. They are combined into a cycle of 60
counting systems for Year, Month, Day and Hour cycles. The counting system
begins from
Wooden Rat and end with Water Pig. Chinese Birth Chart is built using this Stem-Branch calendar.

No one knows who invented the Stem-Branch
for Day counting system, but the characters of Day Stem-Branch were found on
Oracle bones. The Stem-Branch was applied into the Month and Year system around 206 B.C. (between the Chin and
Han dynasties). The astrology animal names was assigned in Han dynasty.

Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and
Earth are called Five Elements. Ancient Chinese Five Elements scholars observed
yearly weather, farmer's activities and plant's life cycle in China, which is in the northern hemisphere.
They found that the cycle of "to born in spring, to grow in
summer, to harvest in the fall and to hide in the winter" can apply on Five
Elements area.

Base on the theory of Yin Yang, Yin and Yang coexists all the time. Ancient Chinese
distinguished Five Elements into
Yin and Yang groups.

Order

Symbols

Calendar Symbols

Pronunciation

Pictographic Characters

1

Yang Wood

Jiǎ

Yang
seed spouts from the ground

2

Yin Wood

Yǐ

Young and tender stem grows

3

Yang Fire

Bǐng

Sunshine on the plant

4

Yin Fire

Dīng

Tree grows like a man

5

Yang Earth

Wù

Flourishing tree and plant

6

Yin Earth

Jǐ

Fruit on the bending stems

7

Yang Metal

Gēng

Cut and keep the crop

8

Yin Metal

Xīn

Prepare
crop to different food on the table

9

Yang Water

Rén

Yang livings hide under the ground

10

Yin Water

Guǐ

Complete close like pregnancy, wait for spout

The 10 Chinese characters were developed from the ancient pictographic
characters. From the following chart, we can see the meaning of the characters
have the relationship with the cycles of farmer's activities with plant during
the year.

Chinese Characters

Pronunciation

Chinese Pictographic
Characters

Jiǎ

Yang
seed spouts from the ground

Yǐ

Young and tender stem grows

Bǐng

Sunshine on the plant

Dīng

Tree grows like a man

Wù

Flourishing tree and plant

Jǐ

Fruit on the bending stems

Gēng

Cut and keep the crop

Xīn

Prepare
crop to different food on the table

Rén

Yang livings hide under the ground

Guǐ

Complete close like pregnancy, wait for spout

The sequence of these 10 characters is
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 10.
That means they are a decimal counting system. One king was named , which means Kon
First, in 1897 B.C. of Yin Dynasty.
More than 20 kings in Shang Dynasty
(1783 - 1185 B.C.) used these 10 characters as their names.

Because these 10 character symbols are the counting numbers, they are borrowed
to Chinese calendar. Chinese call them Ten Stems.